Budget Reconciliation: Tracking the 2025 Trump Tax Cuts
On April 10, the House adopted the Senate’s amended version of the budget resolution, which allows $5.3 trillion in deficit-financed tax cuts.
9 min read
Featured Articles
Making the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Permanent: Economic, Revenue, and Distributional Effects
Permanently extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would boost long-run economic output by 1.1 percent, the capital stock by 0.7 percent, wages by 0.5 percent, and hours worked by 847,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
6 min read
Tax Calculator: How the TCJA’s Expiration Will Affect You
Unless Congress acts, Americans are in for a tax hike in 2026.
3 min read
Expiring TCJA Tax Provisions in 2026 Would Produce Substantial Tax Hike across the US
At the end of 2025, the individual tax provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) expire all at once. Without congressional action, most taxpayers will see a notable tax increase relative to current policy in 2026.
4 min read
Options for Navigating the 2025 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Expirations
Policymakers should have two priorities in the upcoming economic policy debates: a larger economy and fiscal responsibility. Principled, pro-growth tax policy can help accomplish both.
21 min read
How 2026 Tax Brackets Would Change if the TCJA Expires
If Congress allows the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) to expire as scheduled, most aspects of the individual income tax would undergo substantial changes, resulting in more than 62 percent of tax filers experiencing tax increases in 2026.
3 min read
Conference on Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s Effects Shows Further Tax Reforms Needed in 2025
Lawmakers should see 2025 as an opportunity to consider more fundamental tax reforms. While the TCJA addressed some of the deficiencies of the tax code, it by no means addressed them all.
8 min read
Considering Tax Reform Options for 2025 (and Beyond)
Given that U.S. debt is roughly the size of our annual economic output, policymakers will face many tough fiscal choices in the coming years. The good news is there are policies that both support a larger economy and avoid adding to the debt.
6 min read
Another Huge Federal Deficit in Fiscal Year 2024 Despite Surging Corporate and Other Tax Collections
While federal tax collections—especially corporate taxes—have reached historically high levels, these gains have not kept pace with escalating spending, particularly on debt interest, leading to a substantial and concerning budget deficit in FY24.
6 min read
Why Are the Individual Tax Cuts Expiring?
The TCJA improved the U.S. tax code, but the meandering voyage of its passing and the compromises made to get it into law show the challenges of the legislative process.
6 min read
TCJA Family Provisions Offer Template for Tax Reform in 2025
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s changes to family tax policy serve as a reminder to avoid looking at tax reform provisions in a vacuum.
5 min read
How the TCJA Affected Legal Business Forms
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) significantly lowered the effective tax rates on business income, but the impact was not the same for C corporations and pass-through businesses.
6 min read
How Did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Change Cost Recovery?
As lawmakers consider which policies to prioritize in the upcoming tax policy debates, better cost recovery for all investment should be top of mind.
7 min read
Tax Reform Offsets Shouldn’t Offset Economic Growth
Pro-growth tax reform that does not add to the deficit will require tough choices, but whether to raise the corporate tax rate is not one of them. If lawmakers want to craft fiscally responsible and pro-growth tax reform, a higher corporate tax rate simply does not fit into the puzzle.
3 min read
New Study Finds TCJA Strongly Boosted Corporate Investment
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was the largest corporate tax reform in a generation, lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, temporarily allowing full expensing for short-lived assets (referred to as bonus depreciation), and overhauling the international tax code.
6 min read
How Have Federal Revenues Evolved since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act?
As members of Congress prepare to address the expiration of the TCJA, they should appreciate how revenues have evolved since 2017.
4 min read
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act: Comparing and Contrasting the New Industrial Policy
While the approaches differ, they share a reliance on similar linkages: new capital investment drives productivity growth, which grows the economy and raises wages for workers.
37 min read
The Impact of GILTI, FDII, and BEAT
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) reformed the U.S. system for taxing international corporate income. Understanding the impact of TCJA’s international provisions thus far can help lawmakers consider how to approach international tax policy in the coming years.
30 min readAll Related Articles
Tax Filing Season: Options for Improvement
Efforts to improve the taxpayer experience should focus on the IRS’s operations and include structural improvements to the tax code.
4 min read
Federal Corporate Tax Revenue and All Federal Tax Collections Headed for Another Record High
Total tax collections are currently running 25 percent higher than last year, and if that pattern holds, total federal tax collections will reach over $5 trillion in FY 2022—a new all-time high.
3 min read
10 Tax Reforms for Growth and Opportunity
By reducing the tax code’s current barriers to investment and saving and simplifying its complex rules, lawmakers would greatly enhance the ability of Americans to pursue new ideas, create more opportunities, and build financial security for themselves and their families.
40 min read
Taxes, Fiscal Policy, and Inflation
Consumer prices rose by 7 percent in 2021, the highest annual rate of inflation since 1982. Where did this inflation come from and what might its impacts be? Tax and fiscal policy offer important clues.
5 min read
Gift or Lump of Coal: U.S. Cross-border Tax Changes Won’t Be Home for Christmas
As 2021 comes to a close, countries are moving toward harmonizing tax rules for multinationals, but stalled talks on the Build Back Better Act in the United States means new uncertainties for a global agreement and for taxpayers.
5 min read
The Interest Limitation Pile-On
As Congress contemplates adding a new worldwide interest limitation rule as part of the House Build Back Better Act, it is useful to consider the potential effects of this proposal as well as whether it is necessary to add this on top of the U.S.’s existing restrictions on the value of interest deductions.
9 min read
Business Tax Collections Within Historical Norm After Accounting for Pass-through Business Taxes
When looking at the tax burden on businesses over time, it is important to provide a complete picture by accounting for the different types of businesses in the U.S. and the timing effects of the 2017 tax law. Doing so provides important context on existing tax burdens and for considering the impact of raising taxes on corporations and pass-through firms.
3 min read
Reviewing How TCJA Impacted Mortgage Interest and State and Local Tax Deductions
Two major provisions in the federal tax code have been limited since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017: the state and local tax (SALT) deduction and the home mortgage interest deduction (MID).
3 min read
Corporate Tax Revenue Hit an All-Time High in 2021
This year’s robust corporate tax collections calls into question efforts by the administration and congressional Democrats to increase the corporate tax rate and raise other corporate taxes based on claims of relatively low tax collections following the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in 2017.
2 min read
How Heavily Taxed Are U.S. Multinationals?
In general, the effective tax rates on the foreign profits of U.S. multinationals are not that low relative to the U.S. tax rate, contrary to popular rhetoric.
7 min read
Reviewing Wyden’s Reconciliation Tax Policy Proposals
Congressional lawmakers are putting together a reconciliation bill to enact much of President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Many lawmakers including Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR), however, want to make their own mark on the legislation.
5 min read
Temporary Policies Complicate the Child Tax Credit’s Future
Over the next ten years, the structure of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) is scheduled to change, complicating efforts to extend enhanced CTC benefits or reform the CTC for the long-term. Rather than take an all-or-nothing approach or kick the can down the road by relying on temporary expansions, lawmakers could consider alternative options that better target low-income households, retain work incentives, reduce the impact on federal revenue, and provide taxpayers with a stable, consistent tax code.
8 min read
GILTI of Neglecting Losses
As lawmakers are reviewing international tax rules and determining what to change and update, they should pay attention to the way GILTI interacts with profitable and loss-making companies.
5 min read
Don’t Add More Temporary Tax Policies in Budget Reconciliation
Temporary policy creates uncertainty for taxpayers and scheduling more expirations will add to the already-expiring provisions under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017.
3 min read
Expense Allocation: A Hidden Tax on Domestic Activities and Foreign Profits
While arcane, expense allocation rules are relevant to current debates because they result in a heavier tax burden for U.S. companies under current law than the recently negotiated global minimum tax proposal.
10 min read
International Tax Proposals and Profit Shifting
There are many ways the U.S.’s international tax rules could be changed, reformed, improved, or worsened. Reflexively jacking up taxes on U.S. multinationals does not necessarily accomplish the goal of reducing or eliminating profit shifting, and it would in fact worsen it.
6 min read
Analysis of Sen. Wyden’s Pass-through Deduction Proposal
Sen. Wyden recently introduced the Small Business Tax Fairness Act—the impact of which we modeled—to reform the Section 199A pass-through business deduction created in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. The provision currently allows taxpayers to deduct up to 20 percent of their qualified business income from their taxable income, subject to certain limitations.
2 min read
Options for Reforming the Taxation of U.S. Multinationals
The Biden administration’s international tax proposals would impose a 7.7 percent surtax on the foreign profits of U.S. multinationals, resulting in a net increase in profit shifting out of the U.S.
60 min read
Congressional Budget Office Shows 2017 Tax Law Reduced Tax Rates Across the Board in 2018
CBO data shows that the TCJA reduced federal tax rates for households across every income level while increasing the share of tax paid by the top 1 percent.
4 min read
Corporate Tax Revenue Forecasted as Robust following the 2017 Tax Reform
In light of these forecasts, which could be revised upwards further given the pace of growth in the economy and corporate profits, it seems clear that the 2017 tax reform did not substantially reduce the revenue potential of the corporate tax.
3 min read